Efficacy of Tamarind Tamarindus indica Leaves and Mango Mangifera indica Leaves as Feed Additives on Growth, Blood Status and Resistance to Aeromonas hydrophila in Juvenile African Catfish Clarias gariepinus

Abstract This study investigated the efficacy of Tamarind Leaves (TL) and Mango Leaves (ML) with Oxytetracycline (OXY) on growth performance, haematoimmunological and disease resistance of Clarias gariepinus juveniles against Aeromonas hydrophila. Experimental diets consist of control (0%), TL2 (1%), TL3 (2%), ML4 (1%), ML5 (2%), OXY6 (30mg/kg diet), (TL+ML) 7, (TL+OXY) 8, (ML+OXY) 9 and (TL+ML+OXY) 10. The fish (3.02±0.01g) were replicated twice with 20 fish per replicate and were fed twice daily at 3% body weight of 40% crude protein for twelve weeks (8 weeks for feeding trial and 4 weeks for challenge test). Mean Weight Gain (MWG), Specific Growth Rate (SGR), Packed Cell Volume (PCV), Haemoglobin (Hb), Lymphocytes (LYM), Globulin (GLO), Amino Alanine Transferase (ALT) and Aspertate Amino Transferase (AST) contents were ascertained using standard technique. The fish were infected with A. hydrophila at 5.94 log10 CFU/ml interperitoneally and fed different diets to evaluate their Relative Percent of Survival (RPS). Data was subjected to descriptive statistics and one-way analysis of variance at P=0.05. Clarias gariepinus juveniles fed treated diets had higher growth rates than the control diet but C. gariepinus fed (TL+ML+OXY) 10 had a significantly higher MWG and SGR of 7.74±0.69 g and 0.97±0.01 g, respectively. The PCV (44.0±2.00%), Hb (14.7±2.00 g/dl), LYM (37.0±2.00), GLO (42.0 ±2.00 g/dl) were higher in the C. gariepinus fed (TL+ML+OXY) 10 than the control diet. The AST and ALT values among the treated groups were lower than the values in the control at the post-challenge test. The RPS against A. hydrophila was higher in the treated groups (100%) than in the control (0%). Fish fed tamarind and mango leaves had enhanced mean weight gain and were more resistant to A. hydrophila infection.